


Live while you're young

by Simply_Fabulous



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, but i'll add them to the tags once i get there, future prucan and gerita, punk!UK
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-03-21 07:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3683457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Simply_Fabulous/pseuds/Simply_Fabulous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>High school is about discovering yourself, and Arthur and Francis are doing just that</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this is a respost with a little tweaking done because I don't know the meaning of the word "edit". Please comment, subscribe, give kudos or your unborn child <3

Francis walked into the small dorm-room and dumped his bags onto his bed with a sigh. Another year of boarding school awaited him, and he had some mixed emotions about it. Of course he didn’t want to be back at school and have to go to class again, but being at school had its privileges. Mainly, the fact that he would get a chance to be with Arthur again.  Sure, he’d had a great summer, but he’d missed his British beau.

The two had officially started dating towards the end of their previous year at school. Francis had finally worked up the courage to ask Arthur out to the school’s annual dance to celebrate the end of the year. It had turned out to be a magical evening, something that felt like it could have come out of a made for TV teen movie. They’d kissed by the end of the night, and it had been perfect. Sure they’d kept texting and occasionally video chatting over the summer, but what he wanted more than anything was to have Arthur right there with him. He wanted to hold Arthur in his arms and kiss his soft lips again. Francis sighed happily as he began unpacking his bags. His bliss was interrupted when his phone buzzed.

**MON AMOUR <3: Hey, I’ll be there soon, traffic is being shitty so I’ll be a little late. See you soon xx**

Francis read the text and smiled. The two little kisses which followed Arthur’s sentence filed his heart with joy. His boyfriend was coming soon, and we couldn’t wait to see him again. He hoped that Arthur would arrive soon while he continued packing.

Once he had finished packing, he looked around the room one more to check that everything was in order. Content with his room, he left in search of his friends. He found a few of them sitting outside on the grass, taking the chance to relax before they would be forced to attend another boring start of year assembly. Francis took a seat down in the grass between his best friend Gilbert and his still fairly close friend Alfred.

“Francis! How was your summer?” Gilbert asked. His extremely pale skin reflected the Sun’s light, making it slightly difficult to look at him for too long.

“Not bad. I stayed with my father in Paris for a while.” Francis lay down on the grass.

“I bet you met some beautiful French girls.” Gilbert said with a smirk. Francis rolled his eyes.

“No. I didn’t look at _any_ girls, Gil.”

“Oh yeah, you have a boyfriend now don’t you?” Alfred added. “How are things going with Arthur? And where is he?” Alfred looked around, as if Arthur was about to appear from behind a corner all of a sudden.

“It’s going great with him. And he’s stuck in traffic. He said that he’ll be here soon.” Francis smiled softly. He closed his eyes and let the Sun warm his face. This moment was bliss, lying in the warm Sun, talking to his great friends, and thinking about the person he loved the most in the world. It was perfect.

“Well, _I_ had a great summer.” Gilbert said. “My parents had a business trip, so I spent the whole time staying out and hitting on girls. Sure, the nanny wasn’t too happy about me coming home at three in the morning every night, but hey, even she thinks that I’m a little too old to have someone look after me. It’s almost like my parents don’t trust me.”

“I wonder why.” Francis said and rolled his eyes.

“Maybe it has something to do with the time they came back from a business trip and you were in the middle of throwing a party.” Alfred replied.

“Hey! That wasn’t even a good party. They got so pissed at me over such a small party. They don’t get it, you know.” Gilbert sighed and covered his face with a hand. “And to make things worse, my goody-two-shoes little brother is starting school this year.”

“Oh he is? His name’s Ludwig, right?” Alfred asked.

“Yeah, kinda stupid name in my opinion. But yeah, he always does what he’s told, always gets good grades, and never gets calls home from school. Whatever, hopefully I won’t have to see him very much over the year.” Gilbert let out another sigh.

“He’s starting this year? My twin brother Matt is too.” Alfred replied, sitting up and lazily tearing at grass with his hands.

“If he’s your twin, how come he didn’t start at the same time as you?” Francis asked.

“He has problems with social situations, Mom and Dad were worried about sending him away like me, but now he seems like he’ll be able to go.”

“And where is he?” Gilbert asked.

“Hell if I know. The library probably. Like I said, he has problems with social situations. I’d be surprised if he spoke to someone other than me in the first week.”

“Alfred, you shouldn’t say-” Francis began before his phone buzzed. Quickly, he pulled it out of his pocket, hoping that it was a text from Arthur. He let out a sigh and beamed when he read it.

**MON AMOUR <3: I’m here. Where are you?**

Gilbert looked over at Francis and smirked.

“Ooh I think someone just got a text from their _boyfriend_.” He said, sitting up and leaning over to look at Francis’ phone. “What? You changed his contact name to ‘mon amour’, come on, could you get any cheesier?”

“Really? He has?” Alfred leaned over to see. Francis rolled his eyes and pulled his phone close to his chest, hiding it from their view.

“Come on, guys, really?” He said.

“What, you don’t want us to see what sweet nothings you’ve been sending our Artie?” Alfred joked.

“Or maybe he doesn’t want us to see all the dirty things they’ve been talking about.” Gilbert said with a raised eyebrow. Francis rolled his eyes, exasperated. Gilbert laughed, before clearing his throat and doing his best to try and look authoritative, which didn’t really work too well with his already crumpled uniform and his dyed white hair. “I’m only saying this because I care about you, Francis. Be careful! Now don’t you roll your eyes at me mister, this is important! Make sure that you use protection at least, I’m way too young to be a granddad.”

“I know that you’re young and you have a lot of _emotions_ and _hormones_ going through you right now, but just remember that we’re always here if you want to talk, and yes please for the love of God use protection.” Alfred joined in. “Your father and I only want what’s best for you.”

“Thanks, Mother.” Francis replied and stuck out his tongue. The three of them burst into loud laughter, which echoed through the fields and must have reached the ears of anyone else on the field. They lay on their backs once again and looked up at the clouds. Francis sent a text to Arthur.

**ME: Out on the field with Gil and Alfred. Come and join us <3**

After mulling over it, he sent out another one

**ME: I promise, we can have some alone time later ;)**

A few minutes later, the three were greeted by a figure who wore the school blazer, paired with skinny jeans that looked uncomfortably tight, a leather jacket, a loosely tied tie and several pieces of jewellery, including multiple piercings. He was a walking dress code violation. If the teachers saw him, Francis thought, he’d probably end up with a month’s detention. Once the teen sat down by the in the grass, Francis recognized the dirty blonde hair and the piercingly bright green eyes.

“Arthur?” Francis asked.

“Hey, how was your summer?” Arthur replied casually. As if it was nothing at all that he had come back from the summer break looking like a completely different person, casually.

“Dude, what happened?” Alfred asked with unintentional bluntness.

“What do you mean what happened?”

“Why are you dressed all… why are you dressed all weird?” Alfred asked. It was a fair question. The last time they’d seen Arthur out of uniform, he’d been in a sweater vest, quite different from the kind of clothes he was wearing today.

“I’m not dressed _weirdly_ , Alfred, this is just my new style.” Arthur said coldly. “I started listening to some new music over the summer, and well this just fit me so much better, personality-wise.”

“And so you decided that being all emo would be cool.” Gilbert said. “No problem, I mean, some chicks are into that kind of look. I mean, I wouldn’t try it, but to each his own, I guess.” Arthur narrowed his eyes. Whether they were just teasing him, or actually being assholes, it was really starting to get on his nerves.

“It’s _punk_ , Gil, not emo. There’s a difference, and to be honest, I don’t really care too much what you think about it.” Arthur turned towards Francis. “You like it at least, don’t you, Francis?” Francis was taken aback by the sudden question. It wasn’t that Arthur’s new way of dressing was bad in any way. It was just different. It would take him a little time to get used to the fact that his boyfriend was now covered in piercings.

“It’s… a change.” Francis said slowly. He watched as Arthur’s eyes widened.

“You don’t like it, do you?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I wasn’t expecting…” Francis trailed off.

“You weren’t expecting what?” Arthur asked. He was standing up now. _Please don’t storm off_. Francis hoped.

“Well… I just wasn’t expecting you to have changed so much.” Francis said, wishing that it would be just the thing Arthur needed to hear to calm him down.

“Well I did! And it’s a part of who I am now, Francis, and if you can’t accept that, then I don’t know if we should even be together anymore.” Arthur said and then stormed away angrily, leaving Gilbert, Alfred and Francis sitting on the grass in silence.

“Arthur! Wait!” Francis called. Arthur was being usually touchy. It wasn’t like him at all to storm off after a few jokes, but then again, it wasn’t like him to show up to school dressed in a leather jacket either.

“That was unexpected.” Gilbert said after a while, breaking the uneasy silence.

“I should go and apologize to him.” Francis said.

“Maybe, but why was he being so pissy about it? I mean, we were only joking.” Alfred asked.

“I don’t know.” Francis mused. “He probably got into another fight with his dad or something.”

“Well, when you go to apologize,” Gilbert said, lying back down on the grass and closing his eyes, “Tell him he needs to lighten up. It’s not like we were trying to be mean to him.” Francis smiled and nodded. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up from his comfy spot in the Sun and set off to find Arthur

 

It took a while, but eventually he found his boyfriend sitting at an empty picnic table outside the cafeteria, strumming his guitar. He sat down by him, and handed him a cup of tea he’d bought.

“It’s Earl Grey, your favourite.” Francis said.

“What, is this supposed to be some kind of apology?” Arthur replied, without looking up from his guitar.

“I guess so.”

“You guess so?”

“Look, I didn’t mean to try and make you upset, and neither did any of the others.”

“Well they still did. I’ve already heard enough shit from my dad about this, the last thing that I expected was for you to get on my back for this.” Arthur said with a touch of a snarl in his voice. So Francis had been right. Arthur’s dad was causing a little tension for him. Francis slid closer and rested a hand on Arthur’s lap.

“It was just surprising seeing how different you look. That’s all.” Francis said softly. “And you know, if you ever want to talk about your dad, I’m always here for you.” He squeezed Arthur’s thigh affectionately. Arthur smiled, his stony expression warming up a touch.

“But you still like me, right?” He asked quietly.

“Of course I do.” Francis replied. “Why do you ask?”

“I dunno. I just figured that after changing so much, you would have wanted the old me back.”

“It’s still you, Arthur.” Francis replied. “No matter what music you listen to, or how you dress, you’re still my Arthur. This doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

“Thanks.” Arthur said and took a sip of his tea.

“There’s no need to thank me. Now come on, if you don’t hurry up we’ll be late for the opening assembly.”


	2. Chapter 2

Francis and Arthur rushed to make it in time to the assembly. The auditorium was filled with the chatter of a thousand voices. Every student was either talking about what they had done over the summer, or dreading the mountains of schoolwork which were coming their way. The two of them made their way through dense rows of filled seats before they found a pair of empty ones near the wall. It probably wasn’t the best view, but in all honesty the view wasn’t what they were there for. Attendance was compulsory, and they had to be marked present at the auditorium’s entrance. Probably only a handful of students actually wanted to be there, but that was pretty much the same with anything that happened in their school. The chatter did not subside when the lights dimmed. Only when the headmaster stood at the podium placed on the stage at tapped the microphone did people finally take the hint and be quiet.

“Gentlemen, on behalf of the teaching staff and Rexford Prepatory School for Boys, I would like to welcome you all to another year here.” The headmaster was called Mr. Rockford, a tall thin greying man with a thin moustache that grew in such an impossibly straight line that a ruler must have been used somehow. Among his students, however, he was more commonly known as Jeeves, due to his habit of dressing in a black suit and bowtie over a white shirt, and always wearing a small red flower in his breast pocket. He waited for applause, but continued when he was met with only silence. “This school, as you all know, is renowned for its excellency, and as this new academic year starts, I feel that I must remind you that you students are responsible for upholding this status.”

 Already, students had begun to drift off, Arthur could see quite a few people who looked like they had fallen asleep. He didn’t blame them. Warm sunlight was coming through the windows, and it was such a beautiful day outside. Nobody wanted to be stuck in here listening to Jeeves ramble on for however long this damn assembly was supposed to last.

“And in order to uphold this status, there is a code of conduct you must follow.” Mr. Rockford continued, “Now I know, this generation may think these thing trivial, but your parents sent you young men here in the hope that when you left you would be gentlemen. And I intend to fulfill their wishes.”

“Bullshit.” Arthur muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Francis leaned in closer and whispered.

“It’s all bullshit, what he’s saying. About us becoming _gentlemen._ Why can’t he just let us be whatever the fuck we want to? It’s not hard.” Arthur whispered back furiously. He was getting fed up of people in power controlling him, telling him what he could and couldn’t do. Francis simply nodded his head in agreement. He didn’t mind what Mr. Rockford said, really, but he could see Arthur’s point.

“But in order to do so, there are rules you must follow. All of you should have a handbook in which all rules are stated, but I will just go over a few that some students seem to have trouble with.” Mr. Rockford cleared his throat. “No smoking or drinking on school grounds, no leaving school grounds unless you have written permission from both a parent and a teacher, no dress code violations. I shouldn’t have to tell you boys this by now. You should know what is expected of you. This year we are going to be much more _severe_ when it comes to punishments. I will not let the standards of this school drop simply because there are some of you who can’t follow the rules.” Arthur yawned and stretched his legs. The speech, like every other year’s, was an empty threat. Sure, teachers would be a little stricter on you for the first few weeks, but midway through October, everything would go back to its usual routine.

“How long is he going to go on for?” Arthur asked.

“We still have an hour and a half left.” Francis said, looking at his watch. “Why, bored already?”

“No.” Arthur replied sarcastically. “It’s just riveting having the chance to sit here and listen to Jeeves go on and on. I wouldn’t want anything else in the world.” Francis chuckled.

“Hey,” Arthur whispered, “How about we just sneak out instead of listening to this whole damn thing? I mean, he pretty much just says the same thing every year, so it probably won’t matter too much if we just don’t go.” He looked towards the side entrance, there weren’t any teachers standing anywhere near it. As long as they kept quiet and didn’t do anything to make themselves too noticeable, they would almost certainly get out without anyone noticing.

“Sneak out?” Francis asked, incredulous. “You want to sneak out?” If someone would have suggested sneaking out of an assembly to Arthur last year, he would have had a fit. He’d always been the last person anyone would have expected to break any kind of rule. He hadn’t even liked handing homework in late. Seeing him go from his past self to this was surprising, and slightly worrying. He didn’t know why, but Francis felt like everything wasn’t alright with Arthur. Maybe the huge dramatic change was a cover up for something else that was going on in his brain. Francis made a mental note to be a little more attentive to Arthur.

“Why not?” Arthur said, a small grin appearing on his face.

“What if we get caught? You don’t want to get detention on your first day, do you?” Francis asked.

“Trust me.” Arthur said, already halfway out of his seat. “We won’t get caught.” Francis shook his head, but still followed. They crouched and walked slowly through the rows of seats. Although they probably alarmed a lot of students, no teachers found out, which was good. They managed to get up to the side door without anyone who would get them in trouble noticing. Carefully, Arthur opened the door a crack. He took care to make sure that the room wasn’t flooded with light as he slipped out of the small opening. He nodded to Francis, indicating for him to follow along. Francis complied, trying not to touch the dusty doorframe. Once they were both out, Arthur let the door close quietly.

The two took a deep breath of the fresh air. Since every student and most of the teachers were still sitting in the auditorium, the school grounds were almost completely empty. They more or less had the school to themselves.

“So how was your summer?” Arthur asked, the pair began to walk slowly across the grounds, taking care to avoid standing too closely to the windows, just in case anybody saw them.

“It was quite nice.” Francis replied. “I got to visit a lot of nice patisseries and restaurants in Paris, so that was good.”

“Nice.” Arthur said. “I bet you were happy to finally spend some time with your dad.”

“Yeah, it was great. We went shopping a lot and he even let me meet some of the chefs at his restaurants.” Francis rarely got a chance to visit his father, mainly because it was far too expensive to keep on flying back and forth to France every year. His father was a businessman who owned a few restaurants and cafes in Paris. From what Arthur had seen of him, he seemed like a nice enough person. He had always been friendly and polite.

“I wish my dad was more like yours.” Arthur said ruefully. His relationship with his father had never been a very good one. Ever since Arthur was old enough to know what he believed in, he knew that it was the exact opposite of whatever his father thought. He never agreed with his father, and his dad went out of his way to make Arthur feel like he was a piece of crap.

“How are things going between you and your dad?” Francis asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Probably not, but it could be worse.” Arthur said. “We aren’t arguing as much, but that’s because I barely talk to him.”

“You two need to sit down and talk this out.” Francis suggested. “Things are only going to get worse unless you guys try to get onto the same page.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that would work.” Arthur sniffed. Almost every day of Arthur’s summer had involved, at one point, an argument with his father. They would yell insults at each other across the house with Arthur’s poor mother stuck in the middle. And every argument always ended the same way, too. Nothing was resolved. Arthur would just storm off to his bedroom and his father would go and get a drink. “Honestly, I don’t know how much longer I can put up with living with him.”

“Well, at least you only have to spend your holidays with him.” Francis said softly. He reached down and took Arthur’s hand. “Look, I know that your dad hasn’t been the best father in the world to you, but you shouldn’t let him get in the way of you enjoying your life. You shouldn’t let him get into your head like this. And besides, once you’re eighteen, he’ll have absolutely no power over you anymore. I know that it sucks, but there isn’t much more you can do right now other than wait.” Francis gave Arthur’s hand a comforting squeeze. “And I’m always here if you need anything, a talk, a hug, a kiss, whatever makes you feel better. You don’t have to put up with his bullshit alone. I’m here for you, remember that.”

“Thanks.” Arthur smiled weakly. “Really, I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Well neither would I.” Francis said as he pulled Arthur into a tight hug. Arthur snuggled up against Francis’ warm chest, content. For a while, they stayed in each other’s arms. Neither of them said anything, they just stood, nestled up to each other for a while.

~ ~ ~

They continued walking around the school until they noticed a flow of students appearing on the pathways. The assembly must have finally finished, which meant that it was time to head to the first class of the day. Grudgingly, they began to head back to their dorm room and collect their books. All around them, students were slowly going back to their rooms, most of them equally as reluctant as Arthur and Francis. Boarding school was probably the worst thing in the world for a student’s happiness. Nothing made a teenager feel worse than having to spend twenty-four hours a day at school, seven days a week.

“So what do you guys have first?” Gilbert asked, once he had found the couple. Following him were Alfred, and a student neither Francis nor Arthur had seen before. Due to the fact that he looked almost exactly like Alfred, it was safe to assume that he was Alfred’s twin brother.

“I’ve got History.” Replied Arthur.

“History too, that’ll be nice” Gilbert said.

“I have Biology, I guess that’s one class we don’t have together.” Said Francis.

“Dude, I have History too! Isn’t that awesome? We should totally sit together! What about you, Matt?” Alfred turned to his brother. “Oh, by the way everyone, this is my twin brother Matt, who I was talking about. Matt, these are all of my friends.”

“Hi.” Matt said quietly, he smiled shyly and avoided making eye contact with anyone in the group. “I have History – with you, Alfred.” It was clear to see why Matt would have trouble fitting in. He was pretty good at being quiet and blending into the background. It was probably all too easy for other people to ignore him. They wouldn’t even do it on purpose, really. It would kind of just happen.

“Hi.” Gilbert held out a hand to Matt. “I’m Gilbert, and they’re Arthur and Francis. How do you like it here?” Matt cautiously took Gilbert’s hand and shook it. Francis raised his eyebrows, Gilbert wasn’t usually so friendly with new students. He was more likely to be playing pranks on them than to befriend them. He really hoped that Gilbert wasn’t planning to do something to Matt that would humiliate him in any way.

“It’s alright.”

“It must be a big change for you, you know, coming here after being homeschooled.” Gilbert said, a large smile plastered on his face.

“Yeah, it’s a little overwhelming.” Matt smiled sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it, this place isn’t as bad as it seems. You’ll get used to it soon enough.” Gilbert said. “And if you need any help, please feel free to ask me.”

“Okay.” Matt said, his cheeks turning slightly pink. Francis had been friends with Gilbert long enough to know when he was planning something, and that smile told him that Gilbert clearly had something in mind.

“Gil, can you come with me for a second?” Francis said, grabbing Gilbert by the elbow.

“In a minute, Francis. Can’t you see that I’m talking to Matt right now?” Gilbert replied.

“No, I think that it’s _very important_ that we talk _right now.”_ Francis said, tugging Gilbert away from the conversation. Arthur took the hint and began another conversation with the brothers, changing the topic to teachers while Francis dragged Gilbert away.

“What the hell was all that about?” Gilbert asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Francis narrowed his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“No.” Gilbert replied firmly. “I don’t.”

“I’m talking about whatever the hell it is you’re planning to do to Alfred’s brother!”

“Who said I was planning anything?” Gilbert said with a smirk. Francis was not impressed.

“Look, it’s probably hard enough for him to start a new school, a boarding school no less, he doesn’t need you coming in and pulling pranks on him!”

“I wasn’t planning anything!” Gilbert protested.

“Then why were you acting a little off when you were talking to him?” Francis asked.

“Well, it’s just --” Gilbert tried to think of the right words. “He’s not like Alfred is he?”

“Gil, they may be twins but they are actually different people. They have different personalities.”

“I know, but that’s not what I’m getting at. He looks so shy and innocent. It’s kind of cute.” Gilbert smiled.

“Just because he’s innocent, it doesn’t mean you can screw with him.” Francis said with a touch of sternness in his voice.

“Oh I don’t want to screw with him. I might want to screw him a little, but that’s all.” Gilbert said with little laugh.

“Oh, so you have a crush, then?” Francis raised his eyebrows,

“I don’t have a crush,” Gilbert replied, tinges of light pink starting to appear on his pale skin. “I just think that I might want to get to know him a little better, that’s all.”

“Sure.” Francis said. “Just don’t do anything bad to him.”

“Trust me, I won’t. Gilbert replied and left for his dorm room.

~ ~ ~

Arthur walked slowly to his History class, his heavy schoolbag slung over his shoulder. After a long lecture from his dorm supervisor, he had changed out of his skinny jeans into regulation black trousers, removed his leather jacket and straightened his tie. After much arguing with the supervisor, he had managed to keep his piercings, which he was rather happy about. When he finally arrived at the classroom, he was about five minutes late, and the teacher had already begun the lesson.

“Ah,” He said condescendingly, “Mr. Kirkland. It’s so nice of you to finally join us. Now if you don’t mind, can you take a seat, since you’ve already disturbed my class once?” Arthur nodded and went to take the only seat left in the room, between Gilbert and Alfred, directly behind Matt.

“I saved this seat for you.” Gilbert whispered, leaning over his desk.

“Thanks.” Arthur replied as he sat down. The teacher at the front of the class was still rambling on, going through a description of what they were going to be learning about throughout the year and the importance of history in a person’s everyday life. It wasn’t long before the friends, sitting at the back of the class, started to zone out. Alfred was doodling absent-mindedly all over his notes, Arthur had laid his head down on his desk, trying to get some sleep, and Gilbert was tapping his pencil against the desk, thinking of some way to pass the times.

“Psst…” Gilbert whispered, leaning over to Matt, who looked as though he was at least trying to pay attention to the teacher. “Hey.” Matt did not reply. Gilbert frowned. He wasn’t going to be ignored. Tearing a sheet from his notebook, he scribbled a message down quickly and slid it across to Matt’s desk.

_This class is kinda boring, don’t you think?_

Matt read the note and then put his pencil to his lips, unsure of what to do next. Whenever Alfred had been talking about his school friends and mentioned Gilbert, the white-haired teenager had almost always been up to some kind of prank or something. It left Matt feeling a touch on edge, he wasn’t really sure whether Gilbert was genuinely being nice. From what he’d heard, it probably wasn’t a very good idea to trust Gilbert completely. He took a breath and wrote down a reply. He was supposed to be getting outside of his comfort zone, and this would definitely get him to do so.

_It’s OK. I like History,_ Matt paused, his pencil hovering over the page. He didn’t want to seem too cold, he should probably add something to make him seem a touch more approachable. _But this teacher is a little boring isn’t he?_ He slid the paper back across the desk to Gilbert, who quickly grabbed the note. Compared to his extremely untidy writing, Matt’s small, neat printing was another world apart.

_He’s super boring._ Gilbert wrote back. _I’ve had him as a teacher before, and honestly, you’re going to have to drink a lot of coffee to stay awake in these classes._ Gilbert looked down at his note and added a smiley face before passing it Matt again. Matt took the note and read it.

_I’ll remember that. I haven’t had a chance to explore the campus yet. Is there a Tim Horton’s I can go to?_ Matt wrote, and was about to pass it before the teacher walked past and snatched the paper from Matt’s hands.

“And what have we got here?” The teacher said. “I’d expected behaviour like this from Gilbert, but I didn’t think that a new student would act like this on their first day. Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?

“Um…uhh…” Matt had gone a bright shade of red and began stuttering. His body tensed up and his brain was heading into panic mode. He had never been good in confrontational situations, and having a teacher jump onto him like that was the last thing he needed on the first day. He’d really wanted to make a good impression on as many students and teachers as he could, but now it didn’t look like that was the case anymore.

“It was my fault.” Gilbert said, his eyes fixed on Matt. After watching Matt’s reaction, he’s started to regret not waiting until class was over to talk to him. Punishment at school wasn’t anything new for him, but maybe it was for Matt. And besides, he didn’t think that Matt would think any better of him by getting him into trouble. “I started passing him the notes.”

“Well in that case, you two can both have detention.”

“What?” The two both said in surprise.

“Detention. I want both of you here at three o’clock sharp. No excuses.”

“That’s not fair! They were just passing notes!” Arthur protested. “It’s not like they were disturbing the class in any way.”

“Yes, but they were disturbing each other.” The teacher replied with a smirk.

“Come on man! It’s the first day of school and you’re already handing out detentions?” Alfred joined in “That’s not cool!” The teacher narrowed his eyes.

“Well, Mr. Jones, I’m not here to make your classes “cool”. I’m here to teach you. As Mr. Rockford said, the students of this school’s behaviour is starting to fall below the standards we expect of them. My classroom is a place of learning, it is _not_ a place where you can talk to your friends.” The teacher said.

“So what if we do?” Arthur said, feeling rebellious. “Why can’t we talk to each other while we’re waiting for you to get to the part where you’re actually teaching us something?”

“Mr. Kirkland! That is not how you talk to your elders! How dare you talk to me with so much disrespect? ” The teacher’s voice raised. He was starting to get very pissed off now, his eyes were wide and his hands were curled up into tight fists.

“Have you done anything to earn some?” Arthur replied, hoping that he looked cool and unfazed as he laid slouched against his chair. The class watched as the teacher grew even angrier. He was taking deep breaths now, it wouldn’t be long before he completely blew his top.

“That’s it, Mr. Kirkland, detention for you too. And if I hear one more word from you, I will send you to the headmaster.” The teacher replied.

“Oh come on!” Alfred said.

“And you too, Mr. Jones!”

“But – “

“No more arguing. You four have detention today and that is final. Now is there anyone else who wants to talk about this?” The teacher looked mockingly around the classroom. “No? Good, now then, where was I? Oh yes, history allows us to see what people have done in past, and whether what they have done has been successful or whether it has been a failure. And now, what I want you all to do is write about three events in history which have positive examples of how to handle a political situation and three events which show an example of how not to handle political situation. It will be due by the end of the class. And no talking, please.”

The class worked in silence until the bell rang. Students wrote furiously, trying to get through the assigned work as soon as possible. The teacher on the other hand was sitting at his desk, casually reading a newspaper.  Occasionally someone would whisper something only to be shushed angrily by the teacher. After about forty-five minutes, everyone was watching the clock tick, waiting for the class to finish.

When the bell finally rang, the class all jumped to their feet, rushing to leave.

“Hand in your papers before you leave.” The teacher said without looking up from his newspaper. Gilbert, Arthur and Alfred hurried out of the door, one of the first few to leave.

“Well that was interesting.” Arthur said with a touch of amusement as they headed to their next classes.

“I didn’t know you had it in you to talk like that.” Alfred replied.

“It was a little fun watching him get pissed off, don’t you think?” Arthur said with a wicked grin. Alfred laughed.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He said. “What do you think, Gil?

Gilbert was not paying attention. He had just caught sight of Matt across the hallway. He walked with his shoulders hunched, trying to avoid large crowds and moving out of the way of anyone who came near him.

“Gil?” Alfred snapped his fingers. “Are you there, buddy?”

“What?” Gil turned to face Alfred.

“What are you thinking about?” Alfred asked. Gilbert looked back over at Matt.

“I’ll be back. I should go apologize to Matt. I mean, it’s my fault he’s got detention today anyways.” Gilbert said, and he left before anyone could say another word. He headed down the determinedly down the hallway until he met the shy blond.

“Hey.” He said. “I just wanted to say sorry about before, I didn’t mean to get you into any trouble.”

“Oh no, it’s alright.” Matt replied. “Don’t worry about it…uh… your name’s Gilbert, right?”

“Yeah, but you can call me Gil.” Gilbert smiled.

“Okay then, Gil.” Matt smiled back. Gilbert liked Matt’s smiled. When he smiled he had adorable little dimples, and his whole face seemed to light up just a little. He was seriously too cute for words.

“So what class do you have now?”

“Maths.” Matt said with a sigh.

“Oh that’s too bad. I have English.” Gilbert said. “Hey, you’ll be coming to sit with us at lunch today, right? I mean, I understand if you don’t want to hang out with your brother all the time, but you should definitely come hang out with me at least.”

“No, I don’t mind.” Matt said. “And yeah, I’d love to hang out with you.”

“Awesome!”

“Oh and by the way, I have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you know where room two-seventy-five is?” Matt asked. “I’m sorry, it’s just that I left my map in my dorm room and I’m a little bit lost right now.”

“No problem.” Gilbert replied. “Let me take you there.” And so he walked down the halls with Matt. They made small talk about how he was fitting into the school so far, and Gilbert gave him advice. He found that Matt was actually a fairly easy person to talk to. The more Gilbert talked to him, the more Gilbert wanted to know about this cutie.

So maybe Francis was right after all. Maybe he did have a _tiny_ little crush on Matt.


	3. Chapter 3

The school day was long and painstaking, but soon enough it was time for lunch. The busy cafeteria quickly filled with students. It wasn’t long before a thousand voices laughing and chattering were echoing throughout the whole room. Francis shuffled forwards in the line for the school’s barely edible food. You would think that with all the fees that parents had to pay, the school would at least provide their students with something that didn’t taste like it had crawled out of a sewer.

Okay, so maybe he was a little bit pickier about his food than the next person, but that was for a good reason. Both of Francis’ parents had worked in the culinary field for many years. Good food was all he had known. Today’s lunch was a choice of either dry chicken served with undercooked rice and overcooked vegetables, or what looked like in might or might not be a beef stew and a couple of slices of unappealing white bread. Francis turned up his nose, neither of the options looked appetizing by any means.

“I’ll have the chicken.” He said, defeated. He took his tray and walked over to a long table in far corner of the cafeteria. Alfred was already sitting there, digging into his second portion of possibly beef stew. Not everyone was as picky as him, he guessed.

“Is something up with Arthur?” Alfred asked before Francis had even sat down.

“Why?” Francis asked. So it wasn’t just him who had spotted something unusual going on.

“He was acting out in History today, and like, he’s just not acting normal. I mean, he got us detention, and that’s totally not him.” Alfred said.

“Really?” Francis was shocked. It was not like the Arthur he knew to cause trouble. Especially in History, a class which he knew that Arthur loved.

“Yeah. Are you sure he’s okay?” Francis sighed and shook his head.

“I’m not too sure. I mean, he hasn’t told me anything, but I can tell something’s up. I think it might have something to do with his dad.”

“His dad?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he wants other people to go around talking about it, so you should probably keep it down.” Francis said. Alfred nodded and continued wolfing down more stew.

“So how was your first day back?” Alfred asked, changing the topic quickly.

“Could’ve been worse.” Francis said. “Boring, but at least it was uneventful. How about you?”

“Alright, except for the fact that Arthur had to go and get us all detention. On the first day too! It sucks.” Alfred ate another spoon of stew with a new sense of dejection.

“Why so glum?” Arthur said as he arrived at the table.

“You got me detention.” Alfred narrowed his eyes.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Arthur smiled. “I really wasn’t expecting him to get all of us in trouble.”

“Arthur,” Francis whispered. “Are you sure something isn’t wrong? This isn’t like you.”

“Honestly Francis, I’m fine.” Arthur whispered back. “Stop worrying.”

“I’m not going to stop worrying about you, Arthur.” Francis whispered fiercely. “I care about you.”

“Trust me, there’s nothing wrong.” Arthur replied. “Now can we talk about this later?”

“Fine.” Francis gave in. “We’ll talk about this tonight.”

“Thank you.” The three of them ate in a slightly awkward silence until the arrival of Gilbert, who was bringing Matt with him. Gilbert smiled and Matt looked nervous, but not quite unhappy.

“Hey guys!” Gilbert laid down his tray and motioned to Matt to sit next to him. Matt complied with a smile and a small blush.

“Hi everyone.” Matt said quietly.

“I can’t believe that I’ve been here one day and I already want to leave.” Gilbert said. “On second thought, I can. This place is a shithole.” Everyone mutually agreed. Their school was an expensive all-boys boarding school, and for the most part they knew that they should have been in some sense grateful.  But it was hard to be when their school didn’t seem to be making very much usage of the money their parents were paying. And besides, they were teenagers. Hating school was normal.

“So, Matt. How was your first day here?” Francis asked.

“It was okay.” Matt said quietly.

“First day and Arthur already got us detention!” Gilbert complained, before turning his attention to Matt. “So, what were you talking about?”

“Hockey.” Matt replied. “I play ice hockey.”

“Oh yeah.” Gilbert said. “We have a team here. You should try out.”

“No.” Matt looked down at his tray. “I couldn’t.”

“Don’t say that!” Said Gilbert. “I’m sure you’d make it.”

“I don’t know.” Matt said.

“C’mon Mattie!” Alfred chipped in. “You used to win all those games when you were little. They won’t be able to say no to you!”

“I’m not sure though.” Matt said hesitantly. “It sounds like fun and all, but I’m pretty shy. I don’t know if I’d be able to handle going for a try-out alone.”

“But you won’t be going alone.” Gilbert said with a smile. “I’ll go with you. How about it? We can try out together.” Francis narrowed his eyes. Gilbert didn’t know the first thing about ice-hockey, and he highly doubted that he’d be able to learn in a few days. He wasn’t even sure Gilbert knew how to skate. This looked suspiciously like an attempt to get closer to Alfred’s brother, Francis just hoped that Gilbert didn’t injure himself too much trying to impress the new kid.

“That would be really cool! You would do that for me?” Matt’s blue eyes lit up with excitement, he really felt like he was making friends fast here. His parents would be relieved to hear that the first day had gone by and he already had a best friend who wasn’t his brother.

“Of course!” Gilbert said. “But you’ll probably have to help me brush up on my skills a little before we go. Maybe we can catch up after our detention and figure something out?”

“Sure.” Matt said happily. Gilbert smiled. He’d just got himself a date. Easy as pie.

For the rest of lunch, Gilbert and Matt remained in deep conversation. Gilbert pretended to listen intently while Matt talked about his favourite hockey teams and players and such. Francis and Arthur, meanwhile, were having a heated discussion under their breath. Francis just knew that there was something wrong. Why else would Arthur be acting this way? Arthur, however was denying it profusely. He simply kept stating that this was the new him. It was all a part of his new look, apparently. Francis didn’t believe that for one second. Arthur wouldn’t completely change himself overnight. Sure, he could change the way he dressed, but inside he’d always be the same Arthur. There was clearly something up with him, and Francis needed to figure it out.

At this point, Alfred, feeling rather left out of the conversation, began to absent-mindedly stir what was left of his stew and stare off into the distance. It looked like this year was going to be almost nothing like the last.

~ ~ ~

“Look, for the last time, there’s nothing wrong with me!” Arthur said exasperatedly. Francis had spent the last half-hour trying to figure out why Arthur had gotten himself in detention. He didn’t understand why Francis was making such a big deal about it. He’d been angry and he had ended up saying a few things that the teacher didn’t particularly like the sound of. It wasn’t anything shocking, but apparently Francis thought that it was something to worry about. He’d spent thirty minutes trying with no avail to convince Francis that he was okay, when all he had really wanted to do was play some guitar before he had to go to that stupid detention.

“I’m going to be late for my detention.” He got up and left, shutting the door behind him with more force than necessary. He stormed to his detention in a foul mood.

“You’re late.” The teacher said as Arthur opened the door. “You’d better not make a habit out of this.” Arthur said nothing, and took his seat next to Gilbert. The teacher pulled out his newspaper again. “All of you can sit there and be quiet for an hour or so. You can do your homework or whatever, just be quiet.”

Arthur looked to either side of him. Gilbert was already passing notes to Matthew again, and Alfred was leaning over his desk doodling. Seeing as the teacher was too engrossed in his newspaper to notice or really care, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He had a whole lot of texts from Francis

**FRANCIS: Arthur, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to force it out of you so much. But the way you’re acting isn’t like the you I know. Please tell me what’s bothering you.**

**FRANCIS: I’m only doing this because I love you and the way you’re acting is starting to worry me. Please, I want to help you.**

**FRANCIS: I won’t force you to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to. Just know that I’m always there for you if you need someone to talk to. I love you <3**

At once, the anger that Arthur had felt for Francis evaporated. He was being too hard on him. Francis really cared about him, which was evident. He decided that once he got back, he’d find a way to make it up to him once he got out of this damned room. Opening his notebook, he pulled out a pencil and began scribbling down ideas. He was going to make this the most romantic thing ever.

~ ~ ~

Throughout the duration of the detention, Gilbert had been trying to google exactly how to play ice-hockey while sending notes to Matt telling him about how much fun they’d have together trying out for the team. He didn’t think that he’d ever done so much just to get a date before. But the thing was that with Matt is wasn’t just a date. Matt wasn’t like any of the other guys in the school. He didn’t care about how popular Gilbert was, or pretend to be in awe of all the dumb pranks he pulled. Matt seemed to actually like him for his own personality, and for Gilbert it was rare to meet people like that. The few that he did meet ended up becoming more important to him than the world.

The clock on the wall ticked slowly. It seemed like they would be here for hours.

_So we’re going to practice after detention, right?_ Gilbert scrawled a note to Matt.

_Yeah, but I need to finish my physics homework first. I swear, I’m going to fail that class._ Matt replied.

_I can help you with that. I could even tutor you if you wanted. I’m great at physics._ For once this wasn’t a lie. Much to his teachers’ surprise, Gilbert was an excellent student. His teachers were sure that he was gifted in the maths and sciences department, they just could never find a reason to get him to apply himself well enough to behave in class and actually hand his things in on time.

_Really? You’d do that?_

_Of course. Anything for you, my little birdie._ Gilbert watched while Matt beamed as he read the note. His plan was working. Soon enough, he’d have Matt literally in his arms.

“Can I help you?” The teacher said. The four boys looked up to see a new student enter the class. If it weren’t for his nervous demeanour, few could have guessed that he was in his first year. He was tall and muscular with blue eyes and short, neat blond hair.

“I have an important message for Gilbert, Sir.” The boy said. “It’s from his parents.”

“From his parents?” The teacher raised his eyebrows.

“I’m his brother. His parents told me to give this to him immediately.” So this had to be Gilbert’s brother, Ludwig. Arthur thought. He guessed he could see some resemblance, but they still looked like polar opposites. Ludwig walked over to Gilbert and placed a sheet of paper on the desk.

“I think they’re really mad this time.” Ludwig whispered. “You should probably try to apologize.” Gilbert nodded and flicked the folded paper open casually. It was a print-out of an email his parents had sent his brother. He sighed. So now his parents didn’t even seem want to put in the effort to contact him directly. Instead communications had to go through his brother. It was a cheap shot

**Ludwig dear, when you get this, please print it out and give it to Gilbert, will you? Thank you and lots of love! ~ Your Mother and Father**

**Gilbert,**

**We don’t like the sound of this. Ludwig is telling us that it’s the first day of school and you’ve already landed yourself in detention. Don’t you remember that over the summer you promised to behave yourself this year? It doesn’t look like you did. You aren’t a little kid anymore, you should know by now how to behave yourself. Next year you’ll be eighteen, you can’t go around acting like an attention-starved kid anymore, that’s just not going to work. You need to grow up and stop with all this. There are people all over the country who would count themselves lucky of they had a chance to go to your school, and you’re just wasting this opportunity we have given you.**

**We’re tired of your behaviour. If you get yourself expelled this year, it doesn’t look like you’ll be able to come back home.**

They hadn’t even signed it. At the bottom was just the automated signature that came every time his mother sent an email. Her name, her position in the software company she worked for and her phone number.

“Why did you have to tell them?” He asked his little brother.

“You shouldn’t be breaking so many rules! What if you really do get expelled?” Even though Gilbert didn’t like being told what to do, he sensed a touch of fear in Ludwig’s voice. He was worried about their parents’ empty threat, it seemed.

“Lud, I’m not going to get expelled and I’m not going to get kicked out of the house. You’re worrying too much.”

“But --”

“Don’t worry about it.” Gilbert said. Ludwig looked at him for another moment before leaving.

_What was that all about?_ A note from Matt. Gilbert chewed on his pen, thinking of the best way to reply.

_Nothing. Don’t worry about it._ He passed the note forwards to Matt.

~ ~ ~

Arthur had found the perfect way to apologize to Francis. He’d trawled through dozens of websites until he found a picture of an origami rose that looked pretty yet fairly simple. He had then spent the remainder of his detention ripping pages out of the sketchbook his mother had bought him and folding them into roses under the table. Each time he had completed one, he carefully placed it in his bag. He didn’t want to be seen surrounded by paper roses right now.

By the time he was finally free, he’d made over a dozen roses. Outside of the dorm room door, he gathered them up into a bouquet and let out a deep breath. He really hoped that these would work. He couldn’t stand the thought of Francis being upset with him for too long. He knocked quietly on the door.

When Francis opened the door, he couldn’t help but let out a small gasp. Arthur smiled shyly. _This is the Arthur I remember_. Francis thought as he pulled him into a hug.

“I’m sorry.” Said Arthur. “I was being rude and all you were trying to do was look out for me.” Francis shook his head.

“It’s alright.” He assured.

“No, it’s not. I was acting like a real dick to you, and you did nothing to deserve it. I’m sorry.” Arthur said. He handed Francis the roses, and smiled when he gave him a peck on the cheek in return.

“Did you make these yourself?” He asked, admiring the carefully folded paper.

“Yeah,”

“They’re beautiful.” Francis said as he placed the flowers carefully on his shelf. “Like someone else I know.”

“You?” Arthur said. Francis laughed.

“Well, that is true.” He said and leaned in to kiss Arthur. It looked like all was forgiven. Well, at least for now it was.

“Wasn’t your dad meant to video chat with you today?” Francis asked, “You said something about it before. How about you do that and then we can go down for dinner?” Despite the fact that Arthur and his father didn’t get along, at least Arthur was known for trying to communicate with him. He’d never missed a video chat session with his father before. It wasn’t worrying. Things like this happened. It was just strange.

“Or we can just skip dinner altogether.” Arthur said, sliding a hand under Francis’ shirt. Francis smiled. This might not be exactly like the Arthur he was used to, but he could get used to things like this.

“I like that idea.” Francis said, and gave Arthur another, deeper and more passionate kiss. “And what are we going to do instead?”

“Well – “Arthur began suggestively, removing his blazer and throwing it aside. “We can do whatever you want. It’s my night to make it up to you, that is.” Francis smiled tonight was going to be fantastic

~ ~ ~

**Papa,**

**I’m doing well here. My first day back wasn’t too eventful, but there’s something about Arthur that’s bothering me. I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that there’s something bothering him that he’s not telling me about. He’s acting weird, and every time I ask him about it, he just tells me that there’s nothing wrong, even though there quite clearly is. What do you think I should do? Should I keep on trying to get him to talk to me or should I forget about it?**

**Please tell me what to do.**

**Love, Francis**

**Mum,**

**My first day back was alright. I got detention, but that was the teacher’s fault in my opinion. Okay, it was a little my fault too, but it’s okay. Everyone else is alright too. I hope you’re okay, and I hope that Dad isn’t fighting with you too much. If he is, then you can tell him from me to fuck off :D**

**But yeah, I promise you I’m fine. Dad has tried to contact me, but I’m not going to speak to him. It’s to make me feel better more than anything else, so please don’t worry about it. Everything will work itself out eventually.**

**Take care, Arthur**

**Mom, Dad.**

**Okay, so I did get detention on my first day back, and I admit that I kinda got myself into this. And thanks for telling me that if I don’t behave myself you’re going to cut me off. I doubt that you actually would though. But that’s not the point. I’m not going to get expelled, so I guess you’ll have to put up with me for a while then?**

**Gilbert**

**P.S. How about replying once you finally read this?**

**Mom,**

**So this new school isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Alfred introduced me to all of his friends, and his friend Gilbert and I are getting along pretty great. He even offered to try out for the hockey team with me! My classes were all okay, and I really think that I’m starting to fit in a little! I didn’t think that it would be so easy to make new friends here but thanks to Gilbert I really am starting to feel like a kinda belong here. I know it was hard on you, but thanks so much for sending me here!**

**Matt**

**P.S Tell Dad I said hi!**

**Dad,**

**School is okay. I mean class is boring, but what do you expect? It’s class. Gilbert and Arthur got me into detention on the first day too, which sucks. Speaking of Gilbert, I don’t know why he’s all over Matt. I mean, I don’t really think he’d be mean enough to pull a huge prank on him, but at the same time I’m worried that he isn’t just being nice to him for the sake of it. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just worrying too much, but I don’t want anything to happen to my Mattie. I guess from now on it would be better if I watched over them a little more, right?**

**Thanks, Alfred.**

**Mutter and Vater,**

**My first day at school has been good. The teachers seemed wary of me at first (probably because I’m Gilbert’s brother) but I’m positive that by now they know that I’m not likely to cause any trouble. I’ve made a couple of friends here already. I won’t go into the boring details for you, but they are very kind. I know that you guys are busy a lot of the time, so I’ll keep this brief. I love you both and miss you.**

**Your son, Ludwig**


	4. Chapter 4

When Arthur woke up the next morning, he was sore from the waist down, but happy. Last night had been fantastic. Well, every time with Francis was fantastic, but this one was particularly so. Rays of warm yellow sunshine shone through the curtains and illuminated the dorm room softly. He ran his fingers through Francis’ golden hair, which glowed magnificently in the Sun.

His phone buzzed, so he rolled over and picked it up.

**DAD is calling**

He groaned and canceled the call. He didn’t want to speak to his father now. He didn’t really want to speak to his father ever in all honesty. Ever since he was a kid, his father hadn’t been the best of them. It had seemed to him like his father had two modes, angry or drunk. Sometimes they crossed over too. He didn’t know why his mother put up with him for so long. Not only was his father a drunken slob, he was racist, sexist and homophobic half of the time. He hadn’t taken Arthur’s coming out of the closet too well.

For years, Arthur had put up with his father’s rudeness and terrible behaviour, just to please his mother, but now he was done. He’d put up with his father for long enough, and he just didn’t want to deal with him anymore. It didn’t matter how much his father tried to get in touch again, he wasn’t going to speak to him.

**DAD is calling**

Arthur rolled his eyes. It looked like he wasn’t going to give up. He canceled the call again and turned his phone to silent mode.

“Is something wrong?” Francis said, having awoke to find Arthur staring at his phone.

“Oh nothing,” Arthur said casually. “We’re going to be late.”

“Since when did you care about being on time for class?” Francis raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t care about class.” Arthur replied. “I just don’t want to be late for breakfast and not get any pancakes.” He climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Francis rolled his eyes. Curiously, he picked up Arthur’s phone, turning the screen on. He had three missed calls from his father, and all of them had come in the last few minutes. Francis shook his head. He knew that Arthur and his father had never really gotten on very well, but he hadn’t expected his father to do something that would upset him so much that Arthur would stop speaking to him completely. He had to find out what was going on. He could tell that it was bugging Arthur more than he let on, and he’d find a way to do it no matter what.

~ ~ ~

The cafeteria was busy at breakfast time, but relatively quiet. Since everyone was more or less half asleep, not too many people were in the mood for conversation. Most people would just stumble in, eat their breakfast and leave.

But not Gilbert.

Somehow, Gilbert managed to get up at sunrise every morning, and be full of energy. Nobody had any clue how the hell he did it, but when they walked into the cafeteria, Gilbert was already there smiling and enjoying his pancakes without a problem in the world.

“Good morning, guys.” Gilbert said when the two of them put their trays down.

“Morning.” Arthur said tiredly.

“Did you two have a good night?” Gilbert smirked. “I could hear you two through the walls.”

“You could?” Francis’ eyes widened and the two of them turned a slight shade of red. They’d never done it like that in their room before and he’d never thought that anyone would be able to her them through the walls.

“Yup.” Gilbert said nonchalantly as he sipped his coffee. “I had Matt over and he could hear too. He found it pretty embarrassing.”

“Shit.” Arthur looked down at his breakfast. “I should have thought about that.” Gilbert laughed.

“No problem.”

“You still seem to be in a good mood though.” Francis noticed. “Did things go well with Matthew?”

“Yep.” Gilbert said. “We’re getting closer by the second. There’s just one little problem though.”

“And that is?”

“You see, he really loves ice hockey. So to kinda get closer to him a little, I may have lied and told him that I love ice hockey too.”

“That must have turned out well.” Arthur said.

“Well it did!” Gilbert protested. “Apart from the fact that now we’re going to try out for the hockey team together and I can’t play for shit.”

“You know, you could just tell him that you were lying.” Francis said.

“What? And have him judge me for lying to try and get his attention?”

“Well that is what you did.” Arthur commented.

“No. I can’t do that!” Gilbert said. “I just need to learn how to play hockey before Saturday.”

“That’s probably not possible.” Francis said.

“I don’t need to be good. I just need to be able to play.”

“Well, Alfred does know how to play hockey, so maybe you could ask him.” Arthur suggested.

“That’s a good idea!” Gilbert said. “I’ll talk to him later today.” The conversation quickly changed topic as Matthew himself appeared with a plate of pancakes smothered in maple syrup.

“Good morning guys.” He said. Everyone greeted him as he sat down.

“Do you like maple syrup?” Gilbert asked.

“Yeah, I do. I guess you can say I’m stereotypically Canadian.” Matt smiled as he took a bite. Gilbert smiled too. Why was he so damn cute? There was just something about the blonde’s smile that was adorable. He was sure that he hadn’t felt like this before. Every time he saw Matt’s face, it really was like a ray of sunshine. He couldn’t wait to hear his parents thought. They would never come out and say that they weren’t happy with a gay son, but he knew, as he got a whole load of rolled eyes and passive aggressive remarks for it. His parents were just like that, it seemed. At this point it felt like they were actively trying to find reasons to make him seem like less in their eyes than his younger brother Ludwig.

It wasn’t that he cared, though. He could find his own way without his parents’ help. He just thought that it would be nice if his parents actually showed him a bit of concern for once in their lives.

“Gilbert?” Matt shook his arm, apparently Gilbert had zoned out again.

“Sorry, what?” He asked. Matthew said nothing, but looked up at Ludwig, who was standing over the desk.

“What do you want?” Gilbert asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Can we talk in private?”

“What is it about?”

“It’s about Mom and Dad, and something else.” Ludwig said, looking down a touch nervously.

“Fine.” Gilbert sighed. “But this better be quick.” He got up and let Ludwig lead him to an empty corridor not far from the cafeteria.

“So what is it?” Gilbert asked impatiently. He wanted to get back to hanging out with Matt. The last thing he wanted right now was for his little brother to lecture him in the place of his parents.

“Well first, Mom and Dad said that they’re worried about you.” Ludwig started.

“That’s not true.” Gilbert rolled his eyes.

“Come on, they care.” Ludwig said.

“They really don’t, you know.” Gilbert said. “If they gave a fuck, don’t you think that they’d show up after the teachers call them about me, or at least send me an email more than ten words long for once.”

“Look, they’re probably busy.” Ludwig said. “They have a lot of work to do.”

“Sure they do, but they still have time to go on vacation to the Cayman Islands.” Gilbert replied icily. “That’s not the point. Is that all they said.”

“They said that if they get one more email from the school about your behaviour, then they’re going to do something serious about it.”

“And is there any reason why they couldn’t tell me any of this themselves?” Gilbert asked. He was angry now. His parents tended to make him angry a lot these days. Ever since he’d decided that he didn’t want to follow up on their dumb software business it was like he wasn’t important to them anymore. They’d threatened to cut him out of their wills many times before, and in all honesty he wouldn’t be surprised if they did. They’d much rather give all their money to their _perfect son_ Ludwig

“I don’t know.” Ludwig said apologetically. “I’m just telling you what they told me to.” Gilbert sighed. It wasn’t Ludwig’s fault. He was just angry. Ludwig had never done anything to anger Gilbert deliberately, all he’d been doing was whatever their parents told him to. He knew that at heart, Ludwig was a sweet person, and deep down he didn’t approve of the way their parents treated Gilbert either. He was just too shy to say it.

“It’s alright.” Gilbert said. “I’ll call them later today and talk to them. Don’t worry about it.”

“Try not to get kicked out, will you?” Ludwig asked with a smile.

“I will.” Gilbert found himself smiling back. “Is that it?”

“Actually, there is another thing.”

“What else did they say?”

“Well, actually this isn’t about Mom or Dad.”

“Oh really?” Gilbert said. “What’s up?”

“There’s this guy in my class. Ludwig began nervously.

“And?” Gilbert asked. “Is he causing you any trouble?”

“No no, not that.” Ludwig said quickly. “It’s just that he’s really nice and he’s good-looking and – “

“You have a crush?” Gilbert smiled.

“I guess you could say that.” Ludwig said.

“What’s his name?”

“Felancio. Felancio Vargas.” Ludwig said, a little smile rising to his lips as he spoke. _Oh, he’s got it bad._ Thought Gilbert. _He really likes this guy._

“Have you told Mom or Dad?” Gilbert asked.

“No.” Ludwig said. “I don’t know what they’d think.”

“They’d probably take it better if you came out than me.” Gilbert said. He looked at his watch. If he wanted to meet up with Alfred before breakfast was over, he had to hurry up. “Tell me about this guy later, will you?”

“Sure.” Ludwig said as he watched Gilbert rush back into the cafeteria.

~ ~ ~

“Alfred,” Gilbert said as they walked to their first class. “Can ask you for a favour?”

“Shoot.” Alfred replied.

“How well can you play hockey?” Gilbert asked.

“I’m okay,” Alfred replied. “Why?”

“Can you teach me?”

“You should ask Matt. He’s a hell of a lot better than me. I mean, I guess I could teach you, but Matt is like an expert.”

“Uh, well the thing is I can’t ask Matt.”

“Why?” Alfred turned to look at him, suspicious now.

“I _might_ have told him that I was going try out for the hockey team with him.” Gilbert said sheepishly.

“And why would you do that?”

“I was trying to impress him.”

“You _lied_ to my brother to impress him?” Alfred said incredulously.

“Yeah…” Gilbert said slowly. “So are you going to help me out or not?”

“No!” Alfred said. “I’m not going to help you lie to try and get with my brother!”

“Come on!”

“No way man!” Alfred said and stormed off, leaving Gilbert standing in the middle of the hallway.

“Crap.” He muttered to himself. He didn’t know what was going on with Alfred, but he knew that it wasn’t going to bode very well for him. He was going to have to find someone else to teach him how to play hockey. And he had absolutely no idea to do that on so much short notice. Sure, he liked to think that he was quite well-known in the school, infamous actually. But he had no idea who any of the members of the hockey team were in the school. They weren’t like the football team, who wore their jerseys proudly every day that they had a game. The hockey team was almost invisible it seemed. He had no clue who the hell was in it.

And then an idea hit him. It was so simple that he was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before. There was a room near the entrance where the school displayed all of the sports trophies that they had won. There were huge trophies from winning competitions there, but that wasn’t what Gilbert was interested in. What Gilbert was interested in were the tiny plaques on which the names of the most valuable players were written at the end of every year. Once he’d found out the names of people on the team, he’d definitely be able to find someone soon enough. He looked at his watch. He still had about five minutes before class, he could probably make it.

~ ~ ~

The trophy room was filled wall to wall with cabinets containing gleaming trophies. Each one of them polished so carefully that Gilbert could see his reflection in them. In the far corner, he saw all the trophies which were dedicated to hockey, which were a surprising substantial amount. It seemed that the school’s hockey team was a pretty good one. He went over and found the list of Most Valuable Players. His eyes fell to the bottom of the list where the most recent year was.

_IVAN BRAGINSKY – CENTER_

“I see you’re looking at my award.” A voice behind Gilbert said. He spun around quickly to find a bulky student with pale hair standing behind him. He was wearing a thick woollen scarf with his school uniform. Who the hell wears a scarf like that indoors? And why the hell hadn’t he heard him come in? There was something about this guy that seemed a little off, a little strange, but Gilbert put it to the back of his mind.

“Yeah.” Gilbert said. “You got a problem with that?”

“No,” Ivan said with a smirk. “It’s nice to meet a fan once in a while.”

“A fan?” Gilbert raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. It’s so hard to find someone else who’s interested in hockey in this school. Do you play?”

“No.” Gilbert began, “but I’d love to learn.”

“Would you now?”

“Yeah.” Gilbert continued, making things up as he went along. “It looks like such a fun sport, but my parents never let me play as a kid because they thought it was too dangerous for me. I’ve always wanted to learn. Do you think that you could give me a few pointers?”

“Hmm…” Ivan said. “The season is coming up... Okay, fine. But you have to do something for me in return, okay?”

“And that is?” Gilbert said hesitantly.

“Nothing much. Your parents own a software company, right? Beilschmidt Industries?”

“Yeah…”

 “Well I was just wondering if you could hook me up with some free stuff, you know – “

“Is that it?” Gilbert asked, a little taken aback. It was just that Ivan looked so formidable and spoke so seriously that Gilbert had been expecting him to ask for a lot more than some free software. Anyways, it as a relief.

“Yes. I’m quite interested in what they produce.”

“Sure, I’ll get you whatever you want.”

“Good. We start practice at six in the morning sharp. Meet me here tomorrow morning.” Ivan said and held out a hand for Gilbert to shake.

“Sure.” Gilbert said. Once Ivan had gone, he let out a sigh of relief. He’d managed to find a way to get himself out of a close one.

~ ~ ~

It was second period, and Arthur was struggling with his French assignment.

“It’s not that hard, Arthur.” Francis said, in an attempt to help. “You just have to remember to conjugate your verbs.”

“I hate doing fucking verbs.” Arthur groaned. “I’m never going to get this right.”

“Come on, don’t say that. It’s easy once you get the hang of it.”

“That’s easy for you to say.” Arthur narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been speaking French for your whole life. I can’t do this.”

“Of course you can. You just have to keep trying.” Francis encouraged him. He then picked up Arthur’s sheet of paper and scanned over it. “Okay, now I see what the problem is here. You put that in the conditionelle tense when it should have been in the subjonctif.”

“Fuck the subjonctif.” Arthur replied and laid back in his chair. “Honestly, I don’t know why you bother helping me. I’m going to fail this class anyways.”

“With that attitude you are.” Francis chided. “You know if you put a little more effort in – “ Thankfully, Arthur was spared the rest of Francis’ lecture when a voice on the PA promptly announced for him to come to the office. Wordlessly, Arthur got up out of his seat and left. Getting called to the office was not a daily occurrence for most students. Usually you only got sent there if you were in big trouble, or your family needed to contact you instantly. Either way, it didn’t look too good for Arthur. He doubted that he was in any kind of trouble. After that detention yesterday he hadn’t done anything particularly stupid. That meant that it had to be a family emergency. Now that made Arthur worried. Was his mother okay? He’d never known his father to get physical with her, even though she had put up with more than enough of his verbal abuse to last a lifetime, but he was still worried.

“Arthur?” The lady at the office said with a kindly smile.

“Yeah?”

“Your father called. He’s said it’s urgent. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Arthur said and went to collect the phone. _That sly bastard_ , he thought. Not only would he be forced to take the call, since it had gone through the office, but also, since the phone was in front of the lady’s desk, he’d have to be polite too. Damn.

“Hello?”

“Oh, look who finally decided to talk to me.” His father said at the other end.

“Hi Dad.”

“You don’t sound too cheerful.”

“Look, I don’t want to speak to you right now.”

“And why the hell is that? I’m the one who’s paying you to go to this damn school, you could at least talk to me.”

“How the hell would you pay for it when you don’t have a job?” Arthur hissed back, avoiding the gaze of the office lady.

“Don’t talk to me like that!” His father roared. “I raised you – “

“You never raised me, my mother did.” Arthur replied.

“Shut up!” His father said. “First you tell me that you’re off with some fancy-ass French boy, then you go on about wanting to be a damn musician, and now this. Is it too hard for you to show some damn respect for once in your life?”

Arthur was seething with rage. How dare he talk to him like that? How dare he talk about Francis like that? He wanted to swear, to shout, to call his father all the things that he knew he was, but he couldn’t. It would get him into more trouble, swearing to his father in front of staff. He took a deep breath. He had to handle this in a mature and adult way.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He said, trying to keep his voice level and even. “Thank you. Goodbye.” He put the phone on the receiver and walked away quietly, nodding to the office lady as he left.

When he came back to French class, Francis was waiting for his return.

“Is everything okay?” Francis asked, eyes wide with concern.

“Everything’s fine.” Arthur said and took a seat. “It was just my dad.”

“And what did he say?”

“Nothing much. Nothing important anyways. Anyways are you going to help me with this or not?” Arthur reached for his sheet, looking for a distraction.

“Arthur,” Francis put a hand over his boyfriend’s. “Is something wrong? Please, if something’s bothering you, tell me. You shouldn’t have to keep everything to yourself.”

“Francis, trust me, I’m fine.” Arthur said again.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Now can we change the topic? Please?” Arthur said.

“Okay.” Francis gave up. He wasn’t going to find anything out from Arthur, it seemed. He was too stubborn to let anyone know what was going on. If he wanted to help Arthur out, he would have to find another way of doing it. It was wrong to sneak around behind his back, but it was done with Arthur’s best interests in mind. He was only doing this because he hated the way that Arthur looked right now; aggravated, tense and just a tiny bit scared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this chapter took literally forever to write. Life's been hectic lately and my writing habits have suffered because of it :/


	5. Chapter 5

Another day, another few pointless hours of school to get through. Arthur groaned and rolled over in bed. The last thing he wanted right now was to get up. And it was raining outside too, which was just great. With a sigh, he dragged himself out of bed and got dressed, while Francis waited for him impatiently.

“We’re going to be late.” He said while tapping his foot.

“Of course we won’t.” Arthur said as he ran his hand through his hair. “And if we did, it would only be by a few minutes anyway so why would it matter?” Francis sighed and rolled his eyes. Arthur had changed a lot. He could see it now much more clearly, while the blond was running his hand through his dirty blond hair and putting all his piercings in. Francis absentmindedly wondered how many airport body scanners all that metal would set off.

“Are you ready yet?” Francis asked. Arthur gave himself one last look in the mirror before he smiled in approval and turned to Francis.

“Yeah. Come on, let’s go.” Arthur said as he grabbed his bag. Francis followed behind him.

“Oh shit.” Arthur stopped in his tracks. “I forgot something.”

“Arthur, we’re going to be late.” Francis replied.

“Please, it’ll just take a sec, okay?”

“Fine.” Francis sighed and looked at his watch. They were definitely going to be late now. Even if they skipped breakfast, their first class was all the way over on the other side of the school. There was no way that they would make it there on time.

A few moments later, Arthur emerged from the dorm room, locking the door behind him as he left.

“Are you all ready now?” Francis asked impatiently.

“Yep.”

“You know, if you weren’t so cute, I wouldn’t put up with this.” Francis said as they walked to their class.

“Well then I guess I’m lucky I’m so damn adorable then.” Arthur said with a grin. Francis grinned back. He was glad Arthur was back to joking and laughing again after yesterday. He still had no idea what had happened to upset Arthur, and he could tell that he wasn’t quite over it yet, but he knew better than to push the subject.

Arthur had never been the type to openly express his feelings. That’s why it had taken him so long to tell Francis how he felt about him. Francis knew that Arthur probably wasn’t going to talk about something that was bothering him until it reached the point where it was impossible to hide. And often that point was a little too late. Francis wondered if Arthur could tell how worried he was about him. If he did, then he didn’t seem to show it at all.

Whatever was going on in Arthur’s mind, one thing was for sure. Francis would get to the bottom of it. No excuses.

~ ~ ~

When they reached the Drama classroom, they were late.

“Just don’t let it happen again.” The teacher told them, and they entered the classroom.

Arthur liked Drama class. It was one of the few where he could be creative, and where the teachers didn’t pressure him to have everything done perfectly. In this classroom, they did the best that they could, and had fun while they were at it. Today, they started a project in which they would have to write and act a short scene about two people falling in love. The teacher had not yet given a deadline for the assignment, so most of the class had taken the chance to slack of for a period.

Arthur and Francis formed a group with Gilbert and his roommate Antonio. They spent about four minutes discussing the work before they got off topic.

“So you guys should all come! It’ll be awesome!” Antonio encouraged. Antonio was the captain of the school’s soccer team, and as per tradition, he was hosting a party before the start of the season. “Gil’s getting the drinks. It’ll be a blast.”

“Sounds cool.” Arthur said. “Speaking of Gil, how’s your hockey training going? The tryouts are this Saturday, right?”

“Yeah.” Gilbert said. “I’ve been up all night with Ivan for the past week trying to learn how to play.”

“What’s he like?” Antonio asked.

“Brutal.” Said Gilbert. “A real hard-ass. He doesn’t talk much though. And I don’t know what it is about him, but he just makes me feel uncomfortable.” Gilbert shuddered. “Whatever it is, he’s made me train nearly until dawn every night this week. If this doesn’t get me into the team, nothing will.”

“And you’re doing all this just to impress Alfred’s brother.” Arthur said, raising his eyebrows,

“Well, yeah, but this isn’t like all the other times!”

“What, all the times you made us sneak out with you so that you could go and visit the all-girls high school on the other side of town?” Francis added.

“Oh yeah, I remember those. And then didn’t she just end up leaving you for some other guy who taught her piano?” Arthur added. Hearing this made the tips of Gilbert’s ears turn pink.

“I never liked her that much anyways!” Gilbert tried to brush it off, but his friends refused to let it go.

“Oh please, you wrote poems about her.” Arthur said.

“When she dumped you, you wouldn’t leave your room for a week.” Francis added.

“Admit it, Gil. You’re soft.” Antonio joined in. “You’re a total mess when it comes to love.”

“But I’ve never felt like this about anyone before in my life!” Gilbert protested.

“Yeah, and that’s what you’ve said about every other person you’ve dated, Gil.” Arthur said.

“And you’re one to talk, Arthur. It took you about five years to even tell someone you had a crush on them!” Gilbert said.

“At least I managed to stay in a relationship with him.” Arthur responded with a smirk.

“Why are you so obsessed over getting Matt to date you anyways?” Francis asked.

“Look, he’s just really sweet, and he’s very cute and I like him a lot, okay?” Gilbert said. He was blushing now, his cheeks turning a soft shade of pink. The boys around him smirked. There was no denying it. Gilbert was smitten, but before they could go on making fun of him for any longer, their teacher stopped by and told them to get back to work.

“Remember boys, if one group’s is good enough, they get the chance to present it at the Christmas show in front of all your parents! So please, work hard on this, and you’ll make your parents proud.” The Christmas show was an atrocity which needed to be abolished, many of the students felt. Every year, teachers would round up the school’s best musicians, actors and dancers to do a performance. And every year, parents would show up to watch and politely applaud as the teenagers were forced to perform. There was nothing a student wanted less than to perform in front of parents, firstly because of the embarrassment of having your parents smile and wave at you while you pretended to be a pregnant mother who was learning the meaning of true love, and also because the principal would give hell to anyone who didn’t perform absolutely perfectly.

Every year that Gilbert had been here, he had done something to sabotage the show. Last year he had poured soot into all the band’s brass instruments, creating a massive cloud of black smoke. When the principal had yelled that he had ruined the show, Gilbert had pointed out that it was merely for dramatic effect. And in all honesty it did create an entirely new atmosphere. So much, in fact, that it set off the sprinklers in the auditorium and drenched the entire audience in ice-cold water.

And it had been hilarious.

Sadly, the principal had not shared the same view, and Gilbert had earned himself a few months of detention.

~ ~ ~

The first week of school went by quicker than anyone had expected. Throughout the week, relationships between Alfred and Gilbert grew progressively more tense as Gilbert brought himself closer and closer to Matt, and Arthur looked even more like something was bothering him. The week had been somewhat mentally exhausting for the most of them, for their own reasons. Arthur was tense and Francis was driving himself half insane trying to work out what was wrong. Matthew was still trying to get used to his new life, and Gilbert’s new hockey training was exhausting him in many ways.

But on Saturday, he dragged himself out of bed early with a groan and headed to the school’s small ice rink for tryouts. Once he was dressed, he moved cautiously onto the ice, where he met Matt. He waved frantically and skated over to him.

“Matt!” He exclaimed. “You showed up!”

“So did you.” He smiled.

“Of course I would! Are you ready?”

“Maybe.” Matt sighed nervously. “I hope I get in.”

“I’m sure you will.” Gilbert replied.

“And I’m sure you will too.” Matt smiled. Gilbert smiled back at him.

The first few stages were easy enough. All they had to do was skate around to show that they had balance, and then hit a few pucks. Nothing too difficult. Gilbert managed it, and Matt did it with ease. The coach then split them up into groups so that they could focus on certain skills. At this point, people were starting to show up to watch the tryouts. Gilbert picked out Francis and Arthur entering, each holding a paper cup of coffee. He waved at them and they waved back. He also waved at Alfred, who was following behind them closely, but got no response. Whatever. He put Alfred to the back of his mind and focused on the tryouts. He didn’t need to look good enough to actually get into the team (although now that he thought about it, all the practices would give him more time to spend with Matt, as well as a chance to see him getting undressed in the locker room), he just needed to look good enough to impress Matt.

As the tryout continued, Gilbert`s friends watched in the stands, ready to cheer him on.

“Do you think he’ll make it?” Francis asked.

“Who? Gil, or Matt?” Alfred replied.

“Both.”

“Matt for sure. Gil, I don’t really know. I mean, he’s not bad, but he’s not great either.” Alfred said. Francis nodded.

“What do you think, Arthur?”

“Hmm?” Arthur looked up. He hadn’t been paying attention.

“Do you think they’ll make it to the team?” Francis asked.

“I don’t know.” He responded. “I don’t know anything about ice hockey, honestly. And if you don’t mind, I’m just going to the toilet, okay?” Arthur said and he got up to leave. Once he had gone, Francis noticed that he had left his phone behind. He knew that it was wrong to invade his privacy in such a way, but there was something that Arthur wasn’t telling him, and he needed to know. Alfred was too engrossed in cheering his brother on to notice or say anything anyways.

Carefully, he slipped his hand over and grabbed the phone. He punched in Arthur’s passcode and stared at the unlocked screen for a moment. He noticed the missed call icon in the corner and checked. Arthur had fourteen missed calls from his father. Now that was unusual. Francis knew that Arthur had never had a very good relationship with his dad, but for as long as Francis could remember, Arthur had been respectful of him, always answering his calls even if he didn’t want to talk to him. So it was something to do with his father. He was tempted to listen to the voicemail, but before he could get a chance, he caught sight of Arthur returning. Quickly he locked the phone and threw it back into Arthur's seat.  
When Arthur returned, he looked down at his phone in his seat for a second, noticing that it had somehow moved. Much to Francis's relief, Arthur thought nothing of it and sat back down.

"How are they doing?" He asked.

"Matt's doing awesome." Alfred said, leaning forwards in his seat. "Gil's getting crushed though." Francis noted that he seemed a little too happy about Gilbert’s inability to play hockey. He shook his head and tried to pay attention to the game at hand. He was supposed to be here to support Matt and Gilbert, not get distracted by whatever was going on in Alfred's or Arthur's head. He clutched his cooling cup of coffee in his hand as he watched. They had now moved on to playing a practice game, and Francis could see what Alfred meant about Gilbert looking like he was getting crushed. The other players all looked a fair bit more competent on the ice. Or to put it more bluntly they looked like they actually knew what they were doing. Gilbert, on the other hand, seemed rather confused.

~~~

Gilbert wasn't paying attention where he was going. He was too busy looking over at Matt to see the player skating straight towards him. With a crash, the player hit Gilbert and sent him heading face-first into the ice. After that, he didn't remember much other than a wave of blinding pain and his vision going black. 

When he woke up later, he was no longer on the rink. Instead he was lying in a bed in what looked like a medical room. Surrounding him were his friends, who wore slightly worried expression. At least he thought they looked worried. His eyes could barely focus on their faces. And his head was pounding now too, which was absolutely fantastic.

"What's going on?" He asked slowly, "What am I doing here?"

"You don't remember?" Arthur asked. 

"No." Gilbert raised a hand to his paining head. "I feel like crap though."

"I would if I were you." Alfred said. "You got body-checked and went flying. Right into the ice."

"You hit it pretty hard." Francis added. Gilbert groaned.

"Did Matt see?" He asked. "I mean, it must have been pretty embarrassing to get taken out like that."

"Oh yeah Matt totally saw." Alfred said with a trace of a smile.

"He was pretty worried about you." Arthur added. "But he had to carry on with the tryouts. He'll be here pretty soon."

"Aww he was worried about me!" Gilbert exclaimed. "That's so sweet of him!" 

"Yeah, yeah." Alfred looked away.

The three waited with Gilbert until the tryouts were over, and Matt arrived, still wearing his hockey gear.

"Gil!" He cried. "Are you okay?" He hurried towards the bed. Gilbert smiled.

"I'm okay now." He said dreamily 

"Huh?" Said Matt, a little thrown off by Gilbert’s half-concussed statement. Although he thought it would be somewhat amusing to see Gilbert try and get out of thr mess he'd made for himself, Francis figured that it was best for him to at least try to preserve what was left of Gilbert’s dignity. He nudged Arthur with his elbow.

"Do you think we should leave them alone for a sec?" He asked. Arthur looked at him before turning to look towards Gilbert who was staring off into space. He nodded his head and got up, motioning for Alfred to join them.

"Oh no I'm fine here." Alfred said.

"Come on."Arthur said and grabbed his wrist. Alfred resisted. "Let Gil embarrass himself in peace, okay?" He asked. Alfred sighed and gave in, and the three left the room.

"I feel a lot better now that you're here." Gilbert said with what he hoped was a cocky smile. Matt just sighed with a smile and shook his head.

"You shouldn't have forced yourself to try out if you were still a beginner." He said.

"No." Gilbert shook his head. "I had to try and impress you."

"You were trying to impress me?" Matt repeated in disbelief. 

"Yeah. I even took lessons from the big scary Russian guy 'cause I didn't know how to play." Gilbert replied.

"Ivan?" Matt asked. "Why… why would you go through all that, just for me?"

"Because..." Gilbert began before turning away, feeling a blush rise to his cheeks. "Because I think you're cute."

"You think I'm cute? Why?"

"Why?" Gilbert spluttered. "Isn't it obvious? You're so sweet and kind to everyone. It's really adorable." He atopped himself from adding on how cute his smile was, or his eyes, or his curly golden hair, or the sound of his voice. Damn. This was one hell of a crush.

"I'm adorable?" Matt asked.

"Yeah." Gilbert added. "Cute enough for me to make a complete fool of myself in front of everyone just to impress you."

"You wanted to impress me?"

"Yeah." Gilbert said. 

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Gil asked. "I like you. I mean, I really, really like you." 

"Nobody's ever had a crush on me before." Matt said, eyes wide. This had to be some product of delirium caused by Gilbert’s concussion. It had to be. Gilbert was so much cooler and more confident than him. There was no way in hell that someone like him would fall in love with a shy little guy like Matt. It was impossible. For most of his life, he'd been ignored, pushed off to the side and left alone so that his brother could take all of the attention. He had never minded as a child, but as he grew older he had grown tired of it. He had joined the school with low hopes, thinking that he could make a few friends at most. He had never thought that he would find love, and wouldn't have even dreamed that someone would fall in love with him.

But apparently someone had. Not just any person too, popular and cool Gilbert Beilshmidt. It was too good to be true.

"You're not messing with me, are you?" He asked warily.

"Of course not Birdie!" Gilbert protested. "And I don't see why people didn't have crushes on you. You're awesome." 

Matt smiled. "Thanks." He said. "And I think it was really sweet of you to do all of this for me too."

Gilbert found himself smiling too. "So, you know, do you want to do something once I get out of here?"

Matt's heart hammered. He was being asked out on a date. He'd never been asked out on a date before, and he wasn't quite sure what to do. What if he said yes but it turned out to be a joke? Or what if he made a fool out of himself? But he just couldn't pass up this chance. He just couldn't. Gilbert made him feel comfortable. He made Matt feel relaxed and safe. If anyone could go on a date with Matt and not make him hyperventilate, it would be him. He could do this.

"Sure." Matt said.

"You're awesome birdie." Gilbert replied.

"And so are you." Matt said with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late. I've been so busy with exams and volunteering that I've barely had time to write lately, but I'll try to get the next chapter posted soon!


	6. I am so sorry that this is so late omg im so tired and sorry my friend forced me to write while I was waiting for laundry and that's the only way I got off my ass and did something productive

Gilbert had finally gotten out of the emergency room. He was still a little woozy, but other than that, he was okay. And he was sure that the wooziness had something to do with Matt being there with him too. After being let out with a careful warning from the nurse, he left with Matt and a very large smile on his face.

“So what do you want to do?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” Matt said. “Do you have any idea?” Gilbert frowned. He had not thought this through. He’d been so focused on trying to get Matt to date him that he hadn’t even spared a thought as to what they would even do on their first date. His head was still spinning a little too. What the hell were they going to do? He had wanted to think up of something romantic. Something that showed just how smart or how sensitive Gilbert was.  

“Uhh…” Gilbert said. No. This was not cool. This was not how he had wanted his first date with Matt to go, the first date he’d actually cared about for a while.

“How about we just sit down and get some coffee?” Matt suggested. “I think you still need to take it a little easy.” Gilbert smiled and nodded.

“Sure.” He said. “That sounds great

~ ~ ~

Francis paced across the dorm room floor. He needed to do something. This wasn’t just his thirst to know what was going on any more. The fact that Arthur had so many missed calls from his dad as a clear sign that something was wrong. Very wrong. He could try to talk to Arthur again, but he already knew what would happen. Whatever was going on, Arthur wasn’t going to tell him anything.

He could always tell someone at school. That’s always what he had been told when he was a kid, and if he wrote to his mother, he was sure that he’d get the same response. Tell an adult. Let them handle it. If this was really something serious then he wouldn’t be able to handle it on his own.

They did have a point. But what was he supposed to say to them? That his boyfriend was acting a little weird and that stalking him had only made him even more worried? He wouldn’t even be able to begin explaining without knowing at least vaguely what the hell was going on.

He looked over at the clock. Arthur had already finished his last class ten minutes ago. Unless he’d done something to get himself into detention, he would be back soon, and Francis was going to have to carry on pretending that there was nothing wrong.

Ten minutes past. Francis looked at the clock again. He was probably in detention. Nothing to worry about. He’d be back soon.

One hour passed. This detention was dragging on. He checked his phone. No messages from Arthur, he didn’t seem to be on any social media either. Whatever, he’d probably be back very soon.

Two hours passed. Were they _allowed_ to keep students in detention that long? Francis wasn’t sure. He’d sent Arthur a few texts, just to see where he was. No response. Francis bit his lip and stared at his history textbook. He’d been reading the same paragraph over and over again for at least an hour now, but it slipped through his mind like water through a sieve. It wasn’t like Arthur to disappear for a few hours and not contact him. Where the hell was he?

Half an hour later, and there was a knock on the dorm room door. Francis sat up and rushed to the door hopefully. When he opened it however, his face fell as he saw that it was in fact Gilbert, not Arthur.

“Francis!” He said. “Haven’t you any of my texts? I was gonna tell you how my date with Mattie went.”

“Gil, I’m not in the mood right now.” Francis said, his heart sinking. Arthur still hadn’t replied to any of his texts and Francis was beginning to worry. Maybe he’d gone out into the town and gotten lost or something. His phone could have died and he could be completely stranded. That was worrying.

“Well, do you want to go and get dinner, at least?” He asked. “Unless you and Arthur are busy or something.” He and Arthur weren’t busy. He didn’t even know what was going on with Arthur, and that was really starting to worry him. Arthur could get himself hurt or something, and if this had any connection to how strangely he’d been acting all week, Francis definitely thought that this was something to be very concerned about.

“I don’t know where he is.” Francis replied quickly.

“What?”

“I have no idea where he is. He didn’t come back after class today, and he hasn’t replied to any of my texts. He’s been missing for at least two and a half hours, and I’m starting to get worried.” Francis was speaking too quickly. He watched as the smile faded from Gilbert’s face and alarm spread across it.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yeah.” Francis said and let out a sigh.

“Should we --  should we, you know, tell someone?” Gilbert asked. “I mean, what if he’s just hiding in the library or something?”

“And what if he’s really lost or hurt?” Francis replied, distress rising in his voice. “I don’t know why but I have a feeling that he’s not okay.” He looked back out the window. The sun was starting to set.

“Look,” Gilbert said. “I think we should give him some more time.”

“More time?”

“Yeah, if he went off on his own, then there was probably some reason for it. I mean, he’s not been himself for this past week. Maybe he needs some time to himself.” Gilbert said.

“But what if something’s wrong?” Francis said.

“You’re probably freaking out about nothing.” Gilbert replied. “He can take care of himself. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“That’s not a guarantee, Gilbert!” Francis protested.

“Still, I think it’s better if we wait until it gets dark before telling anyone. Honestly, they’d probably tell us the same if we went down there now.” Gilbert suggested. Francis couldn’t really argue with that point. It was funny how Gilbert could actually be the most logical and level-headed at times.

“Fine.” Francis agreed.

“Now come and get something to eat.” Gilbert said. “It’ll make you feel better.” Francis highly doubted that, but he went along anyways.

Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but that day when he sat down at the cafeteria with Gilbert, Matt and Alfred, Francis felt Arthur’s absence all too much. He stayed silent, sipped his drink and pushed his food around his plate while Gilbert, Matt and Alfred talked. He guessed that Gilbert’s date with Matt went well, because they both seemed to be smiling at each other every few seconds and he could see Gilbert making attempts to hold Matt’s hand under the table. Alfred did not appear to be too pleased like this, and was irritable throughout the meal. Francis watched with a sense of unattachment. He ignored their attempts to include him into the conversation and instead watched their behaviour throughout the meal, every now and then his mind occasionally drifting to Arthur. He hoped that he was okay. He desperately hoped that Gilbert was right, that Arthur had just needed some time on his own and that was all. He looked out of the window every now and then, watching as darkness crept over. His phone hadn’t made a single sound. There was no sign of Arthur, Arthur hadn’t texted him yet, he was really really getting nervous now.

“Should we tell someone now?” Francis said after dinner, looking worriedly at Gilbert.

“Yeah.” Gilbert replied. “Yeah, I guess we have to. I hope we don’t get him in too much trouble or anything.”

“I hope he’s okay.”

They went and knocked on the door of the dormitory advisor, a young teacher who looked constantly tired.

“Can I help you boys?” He asked. Francis nodded.

“Sir, it’s Arthur. Arthur Kirkland, my roommate. He didn’t come back after class and he’s still gone. He hasn’t replied to any of my texts or anything and I’m really worried. It’s not like him to just disappear off of the face of the earth like this. I don’t know, I think something might have happened to him.”

“Are you sure? He’s never done anything like this before?”

“No.” Francis replied. “He usually always tells me if he’s going to be back late. I don’t know what’s going on.” The dormitory advisor placed a hand on Francis’ shoulder.

“Have you started looking for him yet?”

“No. I thought I’d wait to hear what you had to say.” The dormitory advisor thought for a few moments. To Francis it felt like years.

“Okay, so this is what we can do. You still have some time until curfew, so if you really are worried about Arthur, then I suggest you look for him around the grounds. If, in an hour you can’t find him anywhere, then we’ll call the police and try to get a search party sent out to the town to look for him. Does that sound okay?” Francis nodded once. The advisor waved them off to go and look for Arthur, and Francis turned to face Gilbert.

“Don’t worry.” Gilbert reassured him. “We’ll find him.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Well we’re all going to be looking for him, aren’t we?” Gilbert replied. “Relax, we’ll find him sooner or later.”

Francis shook his head. He was still worried. No matter how much Gilbert tried to convince him, he would only be at peace when he could see Arthur again, when he could hold him in his arms and reassure him that everything was going to be okay.


End file.
